With
momentum building toward next Tuesday's Niagara Greenway Commission
public meeting/review/vote to determine consistency and funding for
the proposed Lewiston Civic Center, the Town Board has taken further
steps to make the project a reality.

At
its Monday work session, the Lewiston Town Board voted in favor of
three items pertaining to the Civic Center.

First,
it approved a land sale contract with the Lewiston-Porter School
District. The town will pay Lew-Port $50,000 for a 10-acre parcel of
land situated on Creek Road and Daryl Johnson Way, in front of the
high school. This would be the site for the new facility.

Next,
it approved up to $8 million in bond anticipation notes to be issued
by the town, payable over a period of 30 years, to finance the
project. The town would proceed with a sale of serial bonds,
delegated by Supervisor Steve Reiter, for the purpose of financing
the principals of land acquisition, construction and other costs
associated with the Civic Center.

And
then the board set the stage for all this to happen by unanimously
approving a resolution for a referendum vote to decide the future of
the whole matter. A special election, open to Town of Lewiston voters
only, will take place Monday, July 15, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Town
Hall.

Reiter
and councilmen Al Bax and Mike Marra all voted in favor of the
resolutions. Councilmen Ron Winkley and Ernie Palmer were absent.

All
in attendance Monday strongly expressed their sentiment that a
referendum vote of town residents was the way to go to ultimately
decide the matter.

"This
is a big step for us," Reiter said. "We're putting a lot of
resources out there. I think it is justified that the community has
an opportunity to express their opinion."

"We
(the Town Board) want to make sure we're on firm ground with the
residents, and I think (it's) the only way we can" do this, he
added.

Marra
commented, "We're spending a considerable amount of money, a
considerable amount of time. There are other things we could be using
Greenway money for. As many supporters that we've had out there in
public, even the naysayers were in support of it so long as we met
certain criteria. I think that it's very important the people who
couldn't make it to the forefront (by attending Civic Center
information sessions) show up and be able to speak their minds."

Bax
added, "(With $8 million), this vote makes perfect sense."

Payback
of the bond notes is anticipated to be financed via Greenway funding,
but the resolution approved Monday also includes language referring
to a "levy on real taxable property" in the town to pay off the
debt. On this, Reiter, board members and, particularly, Town Attorney
Mike Dowd, all made it a point to stress that Greenway funding would
be the only source to pay off the bonds and Lewiston property owners
would be facing no tax levy liability whatsoever.

"The
document says there will be a levy on taxable real property. There is
no levy," Dowd said. "It just needs to be in there. Greenway
funds and revenue for the project will cover everything."

"This
(language pertaining to a levy on taxable property) is a worse-case
scenario," Reiter said.

Bax
added, "If there's no money available, we're not building it."

Reiter
closed his discussion on the positive, both on the efforts of the
volunteer committee to engage and build community support, and for
the Town Board's work over past months to make the Civic Center a
reality.

Of
the committee's past work to engage the community, Reiter
commented, "Was it orchestrated? Of course it was. They (the
committee) went out and got their supporters to make sure they all
got here. Let's be honest."

On
the Civic Center itself, "We're going to do a good job on this,"
Reiter said. "We're going to make it one of the premier spots in
the town. I know these guys (the committee and Town Board members)
have worked hard on this. It will be a real asset to our community."

The
May 21 Niagara River Greenway Commission general meeting to determine
consistency and funding for the Civic Center gets underway at 3 p.m.
at the Beaver Island State Park Clubhouse on Grand Island. It is open
to the public.